EXCLUSIVE: Juno Films has acquired all North American rights to Alberto Sciamma’s Spanish-language magical realist fable Cielo, which won awards at Fantasia Fest and Fantasporto.
Fernanda Gutierrez Aranda stars as Santa, a young orphan from the Bolivian Altiplano, who flees her abusive home with her mother’s body in a barrel of salt in a quest to find the road to Heaven and bring her mother back to life.
Guided by a fish she swallows alive, Santa meets a priest, gets rescued by a bus full of Cholia fighters, and thrown in jail by a sad police chief mourning the death of his wife three years prior.
John Dunton-Downer, Alexa Waugh and Bettina Kadoorie served as producers. Cielo premiered at Fantasporto in Portugal where it won the Special Jury Prize and audience award and best cinematography honours. In Fantasia Fest it won the Cheval Noir competition’s Best Cinematography Award.
Juno Films negotiated the deal with Film Seekers president Caroline Couret-Delègue, and plans a festival release with a national theatrical premiere in spring 2026.
“Alberto has created a modern fable that defies any expectations,” Vondah Elizabeth, CEO of Juno Films, said. “When I first watched the film, I was riveted by the film that, like the best of fairytales, looks evil in the eye and tells it not to get in the way of the heroine’s well-laid plans.”
Sciamma’s previous films include Killer Tongue, Black Plague, Jericho Mansions, Bite and I Love My Mum.
Juno Films’ recent releases include That They May Face The Rising Sun, Housewife Of The Year, and the upcoming Acting directed by Sophie Fiennes, and Edwin Mullane’s directorial debut Horseshoe.
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